The 21st FIFA World Cup is a major sporting event that is anticipated not only by football fans, but also by people far from football. The event is rightfully called the main international football competition in the world, and in 2018 this large-scale event will be held in Russia for the first time. To hold the World Cup at the required level, it is planned to reconstruct and build new capacious stadiums in 11 cities of the country.
About the 2018 FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 14, 2018 with group matches and runs until July 15, 2018. The upcoming 21st World Cup is organizationally not similar to the previous competition, at least in that it will be held simultaneously on two continents: Europe and Asia. On the part of Russia, the international committee notes that preparations for the world championship are proceeding not only on schedule, but also ahead of schedule. The infrastructure in the selected cities began to be prepared almost 6 years before the start of the international event.
Russian cities and stadiums
In total, the application from Russia was submitted for 13 cities, but it was necessary to choose 11. As a result of disputes and discussions, 11 cities of Russia were selected.
The principle of selecting places for international matches was as follows: the representatives of the Russian organizing committee took into account that the entire territory of the former Soviet Union should be shown from all sides, which means one city from each region. In addition, the financial side of the issue and the readiness of the city for the construction or reconstruction of the stadium were taken into account. The requirements for stadiums were that they must meet all international standards and intervene at least:
· 40 thousand spectator seats for group games, ¼ and 1/8 finals;
· 60 thousand fans for the semi-final;
· 80 thousand seats for the opening and final match.
The selected stadium for the start of the 21st FIFA World Cup must be ready to host any stage of the competition. The Luzhniki stadium in Moscow met these criteria. It is there that the opening of the world championship will take place. For this, additional work is being carried out there on the reconstruction of premises and an increase in the number of seats up to 90 thousand.
Sports events within the framework of the World Cup are planned at the Zenit Arena stadium in St. Petersburg, at the Fisht stadium in Sochi, on the territory of the capital of Tatarstan, the Kazan Arena stadium is almost ready to receive guests. In Nizhny Novgorod, a stadium of the same name is planned, in Samara by this time the Kosmos Arena stadium will be completed, preparations and construction of the Rostov Arena stadium in southern Rostov-on-Don are in full swing. Semi-finals and quarterfinals will be held in these cities of the country.
In addition to the listed cities, Saransk, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad will represent their stadiums for the World Cup in Russia for the quarterfinals and qualifying stadiums. Most of the stadiums are actively under construction and are scheduled to be completed in 2017. Some stadiums are currently under reconstruction to prepare for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, for example, the Central Stadium in Yekaterinburg, which has existed since 1956.
Financing of the 21st FIFA World Cup
The costs of holding such a large-scale and significant event, not only in the sports world, but also in the political world, are estimated at more than 500-600 billion rubles. The event is financed in shares, private capital and public investments are involved. The money is spent not only directly on the sports grounds themselves, but also on the improvement of territories, the preparation of roads and highways.
